Inside the Numbers: Utah’s PFF Ratings in Pac-12 Championship Game

The University of Utah is the Pac-12 champion. I expected a win, but I didn’t expect that thumping by Utah. Beating the same team twice in a season is actually fairly common, particularly when you embarrass them the first time, but I did not expect another blowout. I thought Oregon would figure out how to move the ball and score, and that Rising would have to come through and win the game late. It obviously didn’t have to happen that way, and this week’s PFF scores show why.

Let’s take a look at the individual scores, offense first:

QB - Rising: 77.0 (#3 on offense) on 69 snaps (this is an improvement of 22.9 points over the last Oregon game). Cam went 15/24 (62.5%) for 170 yards (7.1 ypa) with 1 TD and 2 INT. He also ran 8 times for 68 yards (8.6 ypc). One of Cam’s INT was a great play by the defender, the other one occurred because of a terrible rainbow pass that occurred as he got hit. Still, a good day for Cam.

RB - Pledger: 70.9 (#6 on offense) on 22 snaps (+2.8 better than last time). 5 carries for 20 yards (4.0 ypc) with 1 TD, TJ was particularly well rated for pass blocking (84.2 was the 2nd highest individual category score, behind Bam’s run blocking at 86.5), but didn’t get a ton of carries. Still, he used the carries he got pretty well, getting another TD (his 6th of the year).

RB - Thomas: 69.0 on 24 snaps (+3.7 better than last time). 18 carries for 63 yards (3.5 ypc) with 2 TD. Thomas was the main RB (the others had a combined 13 carries) and increased the single-season TD record, which now stands at 20.

RB - Bernard: 66.5 on 20 snaps (-3.2 below last game against Oregon). 6 carries for 38 yards (6.3 ypc).

Utah still ran for 191 yards this week, on 40 attempts, with 3 TD, but that wasn’t quite the commitment to the run game we had last time, going 50/208 with 4 TD. Still, great game from all the running backs.

WR - Covey: 74.7 (#4 on offense) on 33 snaps (-2.7 below last game against Oregon). He had 5 catches on 8 targets for 72 yards (14.4 ypc) with 1 drop plus a kick return for 39 and 3 punt returns for 12 yards.

WR - Enis: 63.1 on 30 snaps (-4.4 below last game against Oregon). He had 1 catch on 2 targets for 13 yards.

WR - Vele: 52.1 on 48 snaps (-6.8 below last game against Oregon). He had 2 catches on 3 targets for 10 yards (5.0 ypc) .

Covey had another good game, the other starting WR were rated average or poor, although Enis’ catch was a big one, getting a first down at and pushing Utah into Oregon territory for the first time of the game. Enis also came up with the onside kick late, although that probably didn’t matter, it did keep the game completely out of reach.

TE - Kincaid: 77.8 (#1 on offense) on 60 snaps (+24.7 better than last time). Kincaid played a ton, with good reason. He had 4 catches on 5 targets for 61 yards (15.3 ypc) with 1 TD.

TE - Kuithe: 63.7 on 45 snaps (-13.3 below last game against Oregon). He had 1 catch for 12 yards on 2 targets.

TE - Fotheringham: 52.8 on 46 snaps (+4.0 better than last time). 0 receptions as he had a drop on his only target. Did okay pass blocking (63.9) and run blocking (67.6).

Kincaid had a great game, the other two were rated okay, although again, Fotheringham is mostly used as an extra OL, particularly against Oregon (32 of his 46 snaps were blocking snaps).

LT - Olaseni: 77.0 (#1 on offense) on 69 snaps (+22.7 better than last time). 44.3 pass blocking and 86.5 run blocking plus 2 penalties.

LG - Bills: 58.8 on 69 snaps (-1.2 below last game against Oregon). 44.2 pass blocking and 59.6 run blocking.

C - Ford: 58.7 on 69 snaps (-11.2 below last game against Oregon). 57.9 pass blocking and 58.1 run blocking plus 1 penalty.

RG - Laumea: 53.7 on 69 snaps (-8.0 below last game against Oregon). 71.8 pass blocking, 58.1 run blocking, plus 1 penalty.

RT - Daniels: 74.5 (#5 on offense) on 69 snaps (6.4 better than last time). 55.3 pass blocking and 76.9 run blocking.

The outside of the OL played great, the inside struggled a little bit, but overall the line played great, as Utah again ran for nearly 200 yards and almost 5 yards per carry. They also allowed only 9 QB pressures and 1 sack, which is about 10 less than Oregon’s average for pressures and 1 less than their average for sacks.

Let’s take a look at the defense:

DT - Tafuna: 65.4 on 27 snaps (-1.3 below last game against Oregon). Tafuna had 1 QB pressure and 2 tackles.

DT - Te Pututau: 64.5 on 12 snaps (didn’t play against Oregon last time). Tennessee had 1 QB pressure, 1 tackle, 1 TFL, 1 sack.

DT - Kaufusi: 59.4 on 16 snaps (-8.4 below last game against Oregon). No stats.

DT - H Pututau: 54.4 on 29 snaps (-8.3 below last game against Oregon). No stats.

DT - Vimahi: 54.3 on 22 snaps (-11.4 below last game against Oregon). 1 QB pressure.

Normally I discuss the entire DL together, but there’s a significant difference here. The DTs rotated a ton, as only Hauati played half the total defensive snaps (56) but 6 players had at least 10 snaps. Nobody had a great game, but again the overall performance worked out, as Oregon’s Dye had only 82 yards on 15 carries (5.5 ypc) with 1 TD.

DE - Fillinger: 79.5 (#2 on defense) on 47 snaps (+19.9 better than last time). 3 QB pressures, 7 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 0.5 sacks.

DE - Tafua: 74.8 (#3 on defense) on 53 snaps (-5.7 below last game against Oregon). 7 QB pressures, 2 tackles, 1 PBU.

Fillinger had an incredible game, by far his best as a Ute. Tafua had a great game, even if it wasn’t quite as great as the last time Utah played Oregon. These two played most of the DE snaps, as Elliss had 9 and Miki had 3.

LB - Lloyd: 91.7 (#1 on defense) on 56 snaps (+28.4 better than last time). 3 QB pressures, 7 tackles, 1 huge INT, and 1 missed tackle. This was Lloyd’s highest PFF rating of the year (edging the WSU game by 0.1 point), which also means it’s his highest-rated game ever as a Ute.

LB - Sewell: 66.1 on 56 snaps (+12.5 better than last time). 4 tackles.

Both LBs had good games, but Devin had an amazing game. This isn’t his best stat line of the year - I’d probably give that to his Stanford game, when he had 9 tackles, 5 TFL, 1 sack, 1 INT, and 1 PBU - but this is probably his most impactful game and may have cemented him as a top 15 pick.

CB - Mataele: 70.2 (#4 on defense) on 53 snaps (+15.3 better than last time). 3 tackles, 1 INT, and gave up only 2 catches on 5 targets.

CB - Phillips: 69.8 (#5 on defense) on 56 snaps (+9.7 better than last time). 1 tackle, 2 PBU, and gave up 0 catches on 3 targets.

CB - Vaughn: 57.8 on 53 snaps (-5.4 below last game against Oregon). 2 tackles, 1 catch on 2 targets.

The corners had a good game. Both Mataele and Phillips played great coverage, and Mataele got a good pick, and Vaughn played okay before his injury.

FS - Davis: 62.9 on 53 snaps (+6.2 better than last time). 3 tackles and 1 reception on 1 target.

SS - Bishop: 46.3 on 56 snaps (-19.3 below last game against Oregon). 1 QB pressure, 8 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack, and 3 receptions on 4 targets. Cole was rated well outside of coverage, where he was rated 30.0, which is terrible. I wasn’t watching his coverage, so it’s entirely possible that’s a fair grade. If not for the coverage grade, he’d have probably graded out very well, as his Run Defense was good (72.7), his tackling was great (83.0), and his pass rush was solid (69.8).

Overall the defense played great. They held Oregon to 74 yards rushing on 29 attempts (2.6 ypc) and 147 yards passing on 13/24 completions (6.1 ypa) with 2 INT. They didn’t give up a score in the first half and didn’t give up a touchdown until the game was out of hand, after which Utah led 38-10 with 5:17 left. They were stifling on third down, stopping Oregon on 3/12 third downs and stopping Oregon’s only attempted 4th down conversion.

There were some noticeable differences between this game and the prior game against Oregon, despite the similar scores. First, Utah turned the ball over, but also forced two turnovers (both probably more impactful, especially Lloyd’s pick six). Second, there were a lot more penalties for both teams. In the first game, Oregon had 6 for 45 yards and Utah had 5 for 45 yards. This time it was 9/87 and 10/89, respectively. Third, Utah was not quite as much of a ball hog this week, as the TOP was Utah +4:04, compared to Utah +10:54 last time. Basically, Utah proved they could beat Oregon soundly, no matter what kind of game was required.

And now the Utes are on to the Rose Bowl.